LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The mention of "a feast of spaghetti code" ("Computer Collectives",
CrossTalk, April/May 1992) prompted this response:
Nearly every software professional has heard the term spaghetti code
as a pejorative description for complicated, difficult to understand,
and impossible to maintain, software. However, many people may not
know the other two elements of the complete Pasta Theory of Software.
Lasagna code is used to describe software that has a simple,
understandable, and layered structure. Lasagna code, although
structured, is unfortunately monolithic and not easy to modify. An
attempt to change one layer conceptually simple, is often very
difficult in actual practice.
The ideal software structure is one having components that are small
and loosely coupled; this ideal structure is called ravioli code. In
ravioli code, each of the components, or objects, is a package
containing some meat or other nourishment for the system; any
component can be modified or replaced without significantly affecting
other components.
We need to go beyond the condemnation of spaghetti code to the
active encouragement of ravioli code.
Raymond J. Rubey
SoftTech, Inc.
3100 Presidential Drive
Fairborn, OH 45324
Voice: 513-429-8291